Category Archives: Obedience to Christ

Let’s read from the third chapter of I Samuel 3:1, “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli, and the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” It is interesting that the writer would say that the Word of the LORD was rare. God was not speaking much in that day because the hearts of the people were far from Him. I have heard people comment, “It doesn’t seem like the Lord is speaking, and when I read the Word it’s not living and real to me.” Number one, when our hearts are not open to God and the things of God, and we really don’t want to listen, then God doesn’t speak that much. Secondly, when God knows we aren’t going to obey what He says, He is not obligated to speak to us.

God’s Word was rare in those days because the priesthood was polluted and the people were being led astray. God began to speak to Samuel, but Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord in a real way. God called to Samuel, “Samuel, Samuel”. Samuel said, “Here am I”, but he thought it was Eli who was speaking to him. The Lord was speaking to Samuel, yet Samuel didn’t recognize it was the Lord speaking to him. The Lord continued to call out to Samuel, and Samuel kept going to Eli asking, “Didn’t you call me?” Finally Eli got the picture that it was probably the Lord who was calling Samuel. He instructed Samuel, “Samuel, if you hear that again, it must be the Lord speaking to you, so just say, ‘Speak Lord, Thy servant hears’.” God called Samuel again and Samuel responded as Eli had instructed him, “Speak Lord, Thy servant hears.”

Samuel was telling the Lord that he was ready to listen to what He had to say. He was saying, “Speak, Lord. I am Your servant. I am here to do whatever You want me to do.” I believe those are the two conditions for hearing God speak. Number one, you need an ear to hear, and number two, a heart to obey and to do what God wants done. Samuel did not know the Lord, but he was in the process of learning to recognize the voice of God. When Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for Thy Servant hears”, this indicated he had an ear to hear, and a heart to obey what God was speaking to Him.

John 15 – Abiding in the Lord and How to Pray video’s are now posted on YouTube and Vimeo.

John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me”, that is, if you are following the Lord, remaining in the Lord, doing what God wants you to do, and you are up to date with your obedience to God, and, “My words abide in you”, then you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. What does this mean?

Jonah was commissioned by God to go to Nineveh to preach and teach there, and to bring the people of that city to the Lord. We might tend to think Jonah should be able to go wherever he wanted to go, but that is not a principle taught in the Bible. Jonah decided to go in a direction completely opposite the direction the Lord wanted him to go. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew the people in that city were very cruel. Jonah feared that if they didn’t accept the message God had for them they might persecute or even kill him. We can understand why he wouldn’t want to go there!

We read that Jonahwent out from the presence of the Lord. He turned his back on the Lord and went his own way! Jonah took passage on a ship to go where he wanted to go. Eventually they found themselves in the middle of a ferocious storm and the people on the boat learned that Jonah wasn’t doing what his God told him to do. Jonah knew this storm was a direct result his disobedience to the Lord, so he directed them to throw him overboard. He saw that as the only chance of saving the ship and crew. What happened next seems rather strange to some people but it says God prepared a fish. Some say it was a whale but the Bible doesn’t really say that. It was a big fish. This big fish swallowed Jonah, and he was in the belly of this fish for three days. That is a brief summary of Jonah chapter one.

In chapter 2, we find Jonah in the belly of this big fish. He begins to pray and cry out to God? Why? He is in a big predicament and he doesn’t know if it will be life or death for him. Jonah eventually prays and God delivers him. This fish spits him out on the shore.

In Jonah 3 it says that God spoke again to Jonah. In other words, God didn’t give-up on Jonah. He still wanted Jonah to fulfill the original intention, purpose or burden that God had for him. God again asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, the city He had originally commissioned him to go to. Eventually Jonah obeys, goes to that city and preaches, and as a result those people turned away from their unrighteousness and to God.

What is the simple principle we can learn from the story of Jonah? When God speaks, eventually God gets His way. If we don’t follow or go along with the Lord, He will sometimes allow something to happen that will bring God to our attention. In Jonah’s case, he spent three days in the belly of a big fish. There are two other examples in the Bible of people who went their own way and did their own thing and eventually got into trouble. Don’t forget, eventually God gets His way.

In the example of Philip in the desert we see the Spirit leading and the result is Christ preached. (I think Acts 16)

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In the desert, the Spirit is speaking. He spoke to Philip in Acts chapter 8. Verse 26, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place…..8:29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” The result of this glorious sovereign circumstance is that Christ is preached, taught and exalted. The person riding on the ancient vehicle learned about and was brought to Christ. The passage in Isaiah was used by the Spirit to exalt Christ. We should always trust the Spirit to bring circumstances for Christ to be made known.

In James 5, Elijah is mentioned. He was a man who saw a situation, prayed and obeyed God. His prayer was in the middle of doing what God is doing. The story of Elijah in James 5 is from the Old Testament of Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18.

God is concerned that His people can experience definite answers to prayers if they will be as obedient as Elijah was. Elijah had frustrations, wonderings, doubts and feelings just as we do, yet he was obedient to God’s word. That obedience gave God an opportunity to answer his prayers.

In the gospel of John 15:7, Jesus says: “If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours.”, in the KJV it says: If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. So look at the sections in this verse. First it says to abide or live in God, this is the obedience. Second it says to let His word live or abide in us. Third it says what you pray will be answered. So what a promise when we just choose to obey God.

O my God! Thou hast redeemed me for Thyself, that Thou mightest have me wholly as Thine own, possessing, filling my inmost being with Thy own likeness, Thy perfect will, and the glory of Thy Holiness. And Thou seekest to train me, in the power of a free and loving will, to take Thy will and make it my own, that in the very centre of my being I may have Thine own perfection dwelling in me. And in Thy words Thou revealest Thy will, that as I accept and keep them I may master their Divine contents, and will all that Thou willest.

O my God! let me live day by day in such fellowship with Thee, that I may indeed in everything hear Thy voice, the living voice of the living God speaking to me. Let the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Thy Holiness, be to me Thy voice guiding me in the path of simple, childlike obedience. I do bless Thee that I have seen that Christ, in whom I am holy, was the obedient one, that in obedience He sanctified Himself to become my sanctification, and that abiding in Him, Thy obedient, holy Child, is abiding in Thy will as once done by Him, and now to be done by me. O my God! I will indeed obey Thy will: make Thou me one of Thy holy nation, a peculiar treasure above all people. Amen.

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This Christmas song is encouragement for those of us called to a special ministry like Joseph and Mary who brought forth Jesus. We are all called to express Jesus in a special way. Don’t fear, just follow God. God will do wonders. Title: Fear Fear Not Mary Fear…Fear not Mary You have favor with God […]